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An Early Drawing of a Revolutionary Design--the Modern Propeller, 1855

The U.S.S. San Jacinto--Propeller, Feb 3, 1855. 1855. New York. Manuscript drawing on thin tracing paper., by the engineer John Shearman. Good condition. 20x16" Drawing in pen and ink, on very thin paper, completed in 1855, by John F. Shearman. Rare. $2500.

This is an extremely early engineering drawing of a modern propeller, executed only a dozen years or so after the creation of the modern screw propeller by John Eriksson. Shearman's creation is devoid of the extra blades that appeared on the edges of the fans of Eriksson's first attempts, and as ultimately adopted as the standard response to this knotty fluid dynamics problem. The propeller pictured here was for the USS San Jacinto, a mail packet that ran along the west coast in the 1850s until it was sunk operating as a blockade runner for the Confederate States in 1864. It was a pretty large propeller--more than 15 feet in diameter--and moved the ship it was attached to more than 22 feet for every revolution of the blade.

The USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy, and was named for the San JAcinto River, of importance during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861...see more here from Wiki.

Shearman was an engineer who worked at the Brooklyn Iron Works, Roslyn Navy Yard (New York) and a number of other places, practicing his trade from 1845 through 1888.